“I wish I could exercise more.”
“I hope to one day travel for fun”
For the longest time, the above two things were topmost in my mind whenever I reflected on my life outside work, but I did nothing about it. A tragic grenade explosion forced me to find my running feet so that one stopped being just a thought, but the travel remained a thought to be acted on “when I got time and money.”
I had all the good intentions (like most of us who want to exercise and travel more), but as we all know good intentions count for nothing, so I kept wishing I could travel for leisure but did nothing about it.
This was until March 2013 when I saw a notice on the message board of Urbanswaras, a running club I am a member of, announcing a trip to Moshi, Tanzania for the Kilimanjaro Marathon. I had been to vast Tanzania but I never visited Moshi, so I thought to sign up for the half marathon.
The run was super hard, it has a steady climb for 10.5km then a descent of the same, and I really had not done any hill work! While I didn’t do great at the run, I totally enjoyed seeing Moshi, running towards the majestic Mt Kilimanjaro and the friendly people in Tanzania.
This got me thinking; “What if I resolved to run in more towns and cities around the world?” That’s how my bucket list got an additional item: run a (half) marathon in every continent before I am 35. With less than five years to go, I have done half marathons in Tanzania (twice), Uganda (once), Kenya (of course). I hoped to run in scenic Cape Town last September but work got in the way.
My goal this year is to conquer Asia by running the Bengaluru Midnight (half) Marathon. Why this run? Well, I have always wanted to visit India, and when I searched marathons in India, running at midnight sounded pretty cool!
Next year my plan is to run in Europe (Paris or Italy) and The Sydney (half) marathon, the US is 2017, then hopefully South America in 2018. I am from tropical Kenya so running in Antarctica is a bit of a stretch, but who knows!
Where do you dream of running?
